and it is outright injustice and wrongdoing, for it entails many harms: the children who have been passed over may sever ties with their father and distance themselves from him, and it breeds enmity and resentment toward the siblings who were favored.

Because these are some of its evils, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, “Fear Allah and be fair to your children; do not call me to witness injustice and oppression,” rebuking him and discouraging him from the act by adding, “Have someone else bear witness to this.” Accordingly, Bashir—may Allah be pleased with him—retracted that gift, as was their habit of stopping at the limits set by Allah Most High.

Scholarly disagreement

The scholars unanimously agree that equal treatment of one’s children in gifts is prescribed; the early generations would even make sure to give each of them the same number of kisses (1), so as to uphold justice, assure them all of affection, purify their hearts, and ward off malice, rancor, and envy.

They differed, however, about whether such equality is obligatory. Imām Aḥmad, al-Bukhārī, Isḥāq, al-Thawrī, and a number of others held that it is compulsory and that favoring some children or singling out any of them is forbidden, basing themselves on the plain wording of the ḥadith. The majority, by contrast, maintained that equality is merely recommended, and they offered elaborate explanations of the ḥadith that fail to convince.

The indisputable truth is that equality is obligatory, both because of the clear text of the ḥadith and because of the benefits it secures and the harms that arise from its opposite.

The outward sense of the ḥadith also requires equality between male and female children, for the Prophet said to Bashir, “Make them equal.” This is the view of the majority, including the three Imams, and one narration from Imām Aḥmad adopted by Ibn ʿAqīl and al-Ḥārithī among his students. The well-known position within Imām Aḥmad’s school, however, is to divide gifts in proportion to the rules of inheritance—the male receiving the share of two females—and this was the preference of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah.

Note

The obligation of fairness among one’s children in gifts, and the prohibition of singling out or preferring any of them, stand unless a legitimate reason requires otherwise. If there is a cause for preference—such as illness, blindness, chronic disability (2), the burden of a large family, pursuit of knowledge, and the like—then there is no objection to favoring a child for such reasons. Imām Aḥmad alluded to this when he said, regarding dedicating a waqf to some of the children, “There is no harm if it is out of need, but I dislike it when it is mere favoritism.” Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah likewise said, “The ḥadith and the reports indicate that justice is obligatory … then there are two categories.”